The other evening while walking my dachshund, Roxy, the sunset was stunningly gorgeous. There was a thick group of clouds coming in from the northwest, their tops heavy gray, their bottoms glowing purplish red. Would have made for a great picture for this blog post and social media if I’d had my iPhone with me. But I didn’t.

For a second I was disappointed and irritated that I’d left my iPhone at the house. But then I considered that what really irritates me is feeling that compulsion to digitally memorialize every moment, no matter how fleeting. It irritates me when at concerts folks are staring intently at their smartphone screens trying to record a crappy video that they likely will never watch instead of just enjoying the live performance in front of them. Instead of living in the moment, the moment of reality, the moment of actual experience, we’re trying to save it artificially for later in order to gain some online likes, shares and comments. Ugh.

I get it, the need and desire to record life’s important moments. And I’m not saying we shouldn’t at times attempt to do so. But here’s a thought: let some of life’s fleeting moments be just that. Fleeting. No picture, no video, no recording can ever truly capture what our eyes and ears and the rest of our senses can.

I guess what I’m trying to say is let’s live more in the moment rather than for the moment. Let’s experience life instead of feeling compelled to constantly document it, saving it for a later time we may not get around to experiencing.